Thread: SWB 2A with a difference

Originally Posted by schuy1

Hmm, so the "fire engine red" was on special at the time huh ? Like the first 100 litre free sort of special? I thought all starfires had been consigned to mooring anchor duty years ago! Good to see a use has been found. It may be a handy donk in there as I recall they hated being reved hard in the torana.
Cheers Scott

The starfire was a flop, mainly due to the horrendous lack of power they had while still trying to move a full sized car. They took a third of the cylinders off, but the power dropped by nearly half. The internals of the starfire are actually quite strong, but being such a small capacity motor trying to move the car around didn't end well for it.

I can't see why it shouldn't be a good little engine in the LR, and the fact it is a straight swap for what's in there is a real bonus, and good thinking IMO.

Oh - Mick, have you put a new timing gear in it at all? They can suffer the same fate as the 202 otherwise. While not catastrophic for the engine, if it strips, you'll be pushing it home. It is the weakest point of the engine. A new alloy cam gear fixes the problem, but if you put an alloy one in it, you need to open up the oil squirter a bit or they have a tendency to howl.

I have completely stripped and rebuilt it. The motor was in pretty good condition and had been reconditioned at some time. I have given it a full birthday, rings, bearings, lifters and new alloy timing gear, I don't think the compressed the goat dung ones are even still available now! I have a couple of XT130's (the Toyota variant) as donors engines, so I was able to rat head parts from them so that I could toss the exhaust valve rotators out. It's not going to be a daily driver and won't do thousands of kays per year, so I think it should do what is asked of it in this situation. Time will tell. Cheers, Mick.

Originally Posted by schuy1

Hmm, so the "fire engine red" was on special at the time huh ? Like the first 100 litre free sort of special? I thought all starfires had been consigned to mooring anchor duty years ago! Good to see a use has been found. It may be a handy donk in there as I recall they hated being reved hard in the torana.
Cheers Scott

The paint job was already done by the previous owner, so not my choice. He had painted it up pretty well, so it's a big job to change it back to something original. Then again it may have been owned by the PMG from new as theirs were all painted red back in the day, however I don't recall them having any short wheel base vehicles around here, but they may have elsewhere. I think one of the main problems with the Starfire was people expected them to perform like a six cylinder especially when fitted in the commodores, so they got well and truly flogged. Cheers, Mick.

Originally Posted by mick88

"I think one of the main problems with the Starfire was people expected them to perform like a six cylinder especially when fitted in the commodores, so they got well and truly flogged. " Cheers, Mick.

Hi Mick, ive had acouple starfires in the past in uc sunbirds and corona's. IMO they are actually a great motor. I think that it would be a really good motor in a series. They rev well and have plenty of grunt to push a car along. As bacicat said make sure u drill out the oiler hole for the cam gear. Alloy gears get noisy in the 4. I fitted a fibre gear to mine as the alloy gear made it sound like a diesel when it was idling. With the oiler hole drilled out and the oil pressure boosted by fitting a washer under the pressure relief valve spring theres plenty lubrication for the fibre gear to last for years. My last sunbird was flogged mercilessly by 2 learner drivers over a 5 yr period. The car never failed once. Great little engine, it was fitted with a manual trans as well. IMO the xt130 motor was better than the starfire but the carby on the starfire was better than the toyota carby. Dump the air injection too.

But all that matters is that u have fun mate. :thumbup::thumbup:

Cheers Rod

Ps. Great looking motor there mate. Painted the right colour too....lol
Sent from my GT-P5110 using AULRO mobile app

Originally Posted by debruiser

Nice rear windows!! I think she's a bit confused though.... flares one side and not the other??? whats the go there

The side without the flares must be it's 'Shirley Temple' side

Originally Posted by Cobber

The side without the flares must be it's 'Shirley Temple' side

First couple of photo's are older, flares were removed long ago.
Body all back to standard bar the late model side windows on the hardtop, when it comes time for rego. Flares, bucket seats, late model doors and single windscreen all removed.

Cheers, Mick.

Flywheel all prettied up and everything ready for assembly.






Cheers, Mick.

Hello Mick,

Your last post about the Starfire was back on the 5th of November 2015. Just wondering how the engine is going now? Did the project get finished or is it placed on the back burner?

I remember lifting up the bonnet of an early Commodore and finding a Starfire in it - there was certainly lots of space left in the engine bay

Kind Regards
Lionel